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Have you ever?

The question above indicates that the person wants to know whether a particular action happened in an unspesific time before now. The kind of tense which is used in that question is Present Perfect. Pay attention to the examples below.

I have fixed your laptop. (S+has/have+Past participle)

I haven’t checked your e-mail. (S+has/have+not+ Past Participle)

Have you heard about Steve Jobbs? (Has/have + S + Past Participle)

Note that in Present Perfect Tense, specific time expression, such as ‘yesterday’, ‘last night’, cannot be used. Only unspesific time expression can be used in Present Perfect Tense, like ‘ever’, ‘never’, ‘once’, ‘many times’, ‘several times’, ‘before’, ‘so far’, ‘already’, ‘yet’, etc.

When somebody says, “I have done my project,” it indicates that the person did the activity in unspesific time in the past. The person doesn’t emphasize the time when he/she did the activity, but more about finishing the activity.

A. Now, to check your understanding, work on this exercise. Re-write the sentence into the correct form of Present Perfect Tense

Example: Mary (not/have) any chance to show her project to her friends.

Answer: Mary hasn’t had any chance to show her project to her friends.

1. I (never/use) any PC tablet before.

2. We (not/finish) our plan yet.

3. Rudy (download) 400 movies so far.

4. Axel and Dion (ever/sell) their software to some big companies.

5. (you/ever/have) some trouble with your computer?

6. Some people (never/try) to communicate using the internet.

7. (you/ever/publish) some articles using Blogs?

8. Unfortunately, the investigators (not/find) any clue on who hacked the government official website.

9. (your mother/ever/visit) your website?

10. Where (you/be) all this time?

Now that you already understand about Present Perfect Tense, let’s try to compare between Present Perfect and Simple Past. Just to refresh your memory, Simple Past is a tense used in expressing an activity happened in a spesific time in the past.

In other way, Simple Past can use spesific time expression, while Present Perfect cannot.

I have fixed your laptop. (Present Perfect)

I fixed your laptop last night (Simple Past)

Now do the exercise below to check your understanding

B. Rewrite the sentence using Present Perfect OR Simple Past

1. I (create) 25 video games already.

2. She (watch) the movie 23 times.

3. (you/go) to the match last night?

4. I (ever/try) to play Pool on Facebook.

5. The police (manage) to arrest the cyber criminal last wednesday.

6. Have (you/be) to Silicon Valley?

The exercise is to be submitted on a piece of paper during the meeting today, May 30th 2013. The assignment submitted will be considered as one meeting attendance.